LAYTON -- A state study shows Northern Utah last year had the lowest number of jobs available -- but at the highest rate of pay -- since Utah began doing the regional survey in 2004.
The annual study on job vacancies around the state, released earlier this month, is done by the Utah Department of Workforce Services.
Other highlights from the 2009 fourth-quarter survey:
SBlt The average offered wage for job openings surveyed in the Top of Utah region was $14.10 per hour, which is up from the 2008 estimate of $13.40 per hour.
SBlt Job openings requiring postsecondary education comprised a greater portion of total openings than ever before surveyed and were offered at a slightly decreased average from 2008 of $21 per hour.
Results of the Job Vacancy Study were grouped into geographic areas of Utah, Weber, Davis, Morgan, Salt Lake, Juab, Tooele. Wasatch and Summit counties were in one region; Cache and Box Elder counties were in another.
State labor officials said the demand for highly skilled employees increased, but the overall demand for labor was down, and workers were staying put in jobs that traditionally have a higher-than-average turnover rate.
"There are certainly jobs like medical technologists, mechanical engineers and pharmacists that showed above-average job vacancy rates (in Northern Utah)," said Nate Talley, a DWS labor market economist who supervised the study.
The vacancy rate for the northern region translates into approximately 14,700 open jobs at any time during the survey period, less than half the number in the 2007 survey, according to state economists.
Other findings include:
SBlt The job vacancy rate for personal and home care aides was 8.1 percent, nearly six times the overall job vacancy rate for the region. Of the job openings, 75 percent were part time.
SBlt General and operations managers had the highest offered wage at $36.70 per hour.
SBlt Nearly one-third of all openings in the health care industry were for nursing occupations.
The survey team noted the 2008 Job Vacancy Survey profiled Utah's demand for labor during a time of economic recession, at the precipice of job losses not seen in the post-World War II era.
"As expected, relatively few openings were captured when compared to vacancy volumes of previous years. Still, average offered wages in the (Northern Utah) region increased slightly," Talley wrote about the survey.
Openings in the education and manufacturing industries accounted for nearly 50 percent of vacancies in Cache and Box Elder counties. Also in Box Elder and Cache counties, open jobs filled quickly during the fourth quarter of 2009, with 73 percent open for fewer than 60 days.
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